The invention disclosed herein pertains to a fixture that utilizes glass tubing containing an electrically ionizable inert gas or vapor, such as neon or mercury vapor, that is excited to fluoresce when an electrical potential is applied to the tubing. The fixture may be used as a source of illumination or for decorative purposes indoors or outdoors although it is designed for withstanding inclement weather when mounted on the outside of a building. The word "neon" is used herein as a generic designation of all suitable ionizable luminous gases and vapors.
An example of the art to which the invention described herein pertains is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,823, issued Jul. 30, 1996. The cited patent discloses one type of fixture housing that is comprised of three longitudinally extending channel members, at least one of which is a transparent member to provide for light emitted from the glass tubing to be visualized directly or to provide for illuminating a building and/or the environment adjacent a building. In the patent, the neon tubing, its supporting standoffs, and a transformer are mounted to a plastic plate that slides into the grooves in one of the channel members and constitutes a fourth separate piece of the housing assembly besides the three channels.